Todays press 26.04.2016 is full of stories of the shenanigans of the previous owners of British Home Stores.   We commented yesterday on some of the activities of the “party animals” Philip and Tina Green and their lavish lifestyle supported by Tax Free 1.2 Bil cleverly paid to them from their various High Street stores; 586 Mil of this came from BHS.  His 60th birthday bash 3 years ago was a relatively modest affair, a mere 3 Mil spent flying 150 of his VBFs (Very Best Friends) to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, a big comedown from the 50 Mil spent on his 50th celebrations in Cyprus.

Retail Acquisitions which bought the business for One Pound, (obviously on its knees) 13 months ago didn’t hang about extracting cash from it in a variety of ways; in total 25 Mil !M’gt Fees, 2.8. Salaries,2.1. Legal Fees,11.0. Intererst,10.0. The driver (pun intended) behind acquiring BHS was Racing Driver, Dominic Chappell who owns 90% of Retail Acquisitions has fallen on hard times before having been declared bankrupt twice.

The Pension Fund, 20,000 members including current & past employees ran a Surplus in the years from 2001 to 2008, varying from 5 to 17 Mil. In 2009 even after the crash the Surplus was still 3.4 Mil. In a short 6 years the Deficit has ballooned to 571 Mil! Many questions to be asked of the Greens & Retail Acquisitions.

The Pensions Regulator will be attempting to do what I often advocate, “Follow the Money”